Rotary meter.



UNITED STATES Patented December 8, 1903i WILLIAM H. LARRABEE, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

ROTARY M ETER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 746,634, dated December 8, 1903.

Application filed October 12, 1903. Serial No. 176,655. (No model.)

To all whom it may causeway Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. LARRA- BEE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Worcester, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rotary Meters, of which the following, together with the accompanying drawings, is a specification sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable persons skilled in the art to which this invention appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to that-class of rotary meters employing a single revolving wheel-piston arranged to whirl upon a pintlesupport and having a stem or spindle. provided with a pinion-gear for working the register-operating gearing. In this class of meters it has heretofore been found as an objection that rapid and irregular wearing of the bearing-surfaces occurs atthe ends of the hard-rubber parts, causing derangement in the action and variations in the registration of flow. Also in some instances there results a cutting off by wear of the piston-stem, es-

pecially where the meter is employed for water that'carries gritty sediment.

The object of my present improvement is to obviate these objections and to prevent excessive wear and irregular friction between the surfaces of the rubber piston-wheel and the rubber bushing for the upper axis, also to prevent the cutting of the axle or pistonstem.

To this end my invention consists in the combination of mechanisms hereinafter described and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 represents a vertical sectional view of a water-meter having my improvement embraced therein. Fig. 2is aside view of the bearing members at the top of the piston. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the same at line XX. Fig. 4: shows the detail of the bearing-plate, Fig. 5 the detail of the bearing-bushing, and Fig. 6 a blank from which the bearing-plate may be made.

C indicates the radially-winged wheel-pisite and is freely rotatable within the meterchamber by the force of the water or fiuid entering through the passway e, which is controlled by the automatic valve E, arranged in the antechamber e, that connects with the inlet-spud. r

The numeral 3 indicates the piston-sup porting pintle; 5, the piston-stem or upper axial spindle, fixed in the piston-hub c and having fixed on its end the drive-pinion 6, that engages and operates the register-driving train .D.

All of the above-mentioned parts are well known, but are herein shown to afit'ord a bet ter understanding of the improved construction.

F indicates a tubular flanged bushing made of hard rubber and arranged as a bearing for the piston-stem through the top plate 7 of the meter-chamber. This bushing is fitted to turn freely on the stem 5 and also to turn freely within the opening through the plate 7.

Between the lower end of the hard-rubber bushing F and the upper end of the hub o of the hard-rubber piston O, I arrange a metal bearing-plate 1, comprising a flat annular bearing-disk 8,having upwardly-turned edges or lips 9, that are fitted to disconnectctlly enibraoe the peripheral edge 10 of the bushingpiece at its lower end or, ifpreferred, the end of the hub c, the metal plate forming a rotatively loose concentrically-confined antiwearing reinforce between the two hard-rubber surfaces of the wheel-piston and rotatable bushing. This bearing-plate is best made of brass and can be punched from sheet metal in a blank of the form shown in Fig. 6 and o ing-plate is unattached in relation to both the bushing and the piston, but is maintained in concentric relation to the axis and with its disk perpendicular thereto, so that the parts can have ample freedom of action Without tending to efiect irregularity of Wear and the cutting action in the piston-stem obviated.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, in a rotary meter, of a rotatable piston-wheel, its axle-stem, the rotatable bushing for the upper axle-bearing, and the unattached intermediate bearingplate having means at the exterior of the bearing-surfaees for maintaining it axially concentric With the bushing and axle-stem, for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination, in a rotary meter, of the hard-rubber or vulcanite piston-wheel, its metallic axis-stem and pinion fixed thereon,

a piston -supporting pintle, the revoluble hard-rubber bushing supporting said axisstem Within the casing, and an intermediate metallic bearing-plate disposed between the end surfaces of said piston-wheel and bushing, said bearing-plate being provided with turned-up edges or lips that circumferentially but diseonnectedly engage the periphery of said bushing, exterior to the bearing-surface, substantially as set forth.

Witness my hand this 5th day of October, 1903.

WVILLIAM H. LARRABEE. Witnesses:

CHAS. H. BURLEIGH, SIMEoN E. KING. 

